City commissioners decided to invite Colin Baenziger & Associates of Wellington, Fla., Strategic Government Resources of Keller, Texas, Voorhees Associates LLC of Deerfield Ill., and Welsh & Associates of Kalamazoo to interview in-person with city commissioners. Two of the firms -- Colin Baenziger & Associates and Strategic Government Resources -- are familiar names, as commissioners in January selected them as two of three finalists to find the city's next manager.

Last week, commissioners sent questions about the rebooted search to nine search firms from the original pool of 11 that had applied to conduct the search. Five commissioners said Monday they wanted to interview Voorhees, while the three other firms received four votes.

"Though none of them recommended shortening the timeline, some of them could work within those sorts of constraints if we needed them to," Hopewell said. City Manager Kenneth Collard has said he will retire by January 2014.

Commissioner David Anderson said virtually every firm said that a second search is harder because of candidate concerns. Anderson said one issue for a candidate could be the upcoming November election, when each commission seat will be for grabs.

Commissioners will ask representatives from each of the firms to interview in-person on June 19, June 21 or June 24. Each firm will be scheduled for hour-long interviews.

Prices the four headhunting firms would charge differ by almost $12,000 according to the firms' proposals listed on the city's website. Welsh and Associates quoted the highest price of all 11 firms that bid at $31,650. Strategic Government Resources quoted $24,000 Colin Baenziger quoted $21,500 and Voorhees quoted $19,900.

Commissioners also were expected to sharpen the city manager profile they had a consultant develop through stakeholder meetings last year. But commissioners Don Cooney, Bob Cinabro and Barb Miller said they should wait to work on the profile.

"I think it would be a waste of time for us to do more on the profile until we have a firm that's going to work with us and can help us define what we want in that profile," Cooney said.

Emily Monacelli is a local government reporter for MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette. Contact her at emonacel@mlive.com. Follow her on Twitter.